


Adrift

by obsessive_c



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Dramatic, Extra, F/M, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Wanda-centric, but before steve gets em, i am not putting good tags, if yall get me, its sad, just FYI, like wanda just knows her as a guard @ first, lost at sea fic, sharon carter isn't named at first but dw she'll be there, the government sucks ass, vision comes in later
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-20
Updated: 2018-05-21
Packaged: 2019-05-09 12:13:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14715840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/obsessive_c/pseuds/obsessive_c
Summary: The previously thought invincible sea-prison, The Raft, has sunk before Steve Rogers could heroically and illegally save his friends. All of them escape, but Wanda gets separated from the group when a bad storm hits. Stuck in the water with an electric collar, handcuffs, and a heavy canvas uniform with no boat Wanda will need to figure out how to survive until help gets her. Help is on it's way, but she is now a needle stranded in an open ocean of a haystack. Will Wanda make it alone in the ocean?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> First chapter! I love this idea so much, and will try to update it as often as I can. :) I hope you enjoy! (As much as one can enjoy a sad story)

Wanda woke to shouts, quickly sitting up on the cold cot she was on, brows furrowed confusedly as she saw personnel run, papers flying and people heatedly speaking. She stood, ignoring the creak of her joints due to little movement. From what she could see of the other cells Sam and Clint were standing at their windows too, asking what was going on. A beep reminded her of her collar when her restrained hands instinctively buzzed at the scene by her hips where they were secured, uneasy. A lurch of the prison is what made her afraid, seeing personnel and guards putting on life jackets. “Hey! What’s going on?” She said, mirroring Clint in that she paced for a moment, elbowing the glass as best she could given her straight jacket, striking it a few times and repeating her question again. 

One of the few guards she saw often looked over to her, brows furrowed. When the woman was there, about half the time she was usually the one to bring Wanda her food, and sometimes even struck up brief conversations with her, she looked like she was only a few years older than Wanda. Wanda felt like she should know her name by now. The guard sighed after looking at Wanda for a moment, turning to talk to one of her superiors, arms crossed as she seemed to try to reason with the man, glancing to Wanda every few moments as she spoke. But with whatever he was telling her he was stern, but she yelled back, ending up just pushing him aside and grabbing a few life jackets. She put one in each of the cells food receptors, going to Wanda last, speaking to her as she slipped it in, then letting Wanda stick her arms out so that the guard disengaged her straight jacket. “Prisoner 116, The structural integrity of the Raft is failing, and it is going to sink. My commanding officer said to leave you guys, but if you comply, I’ll take you guys on the emergency ship with me, can you do that?” Her voice was clear despite the muffling from the glass and commanding in it's tone, which Wanda needed, shakily putting on her life jacket before nodding nervously, not able to appreciate how nice it was to be able to move her arms given the circumstance, though she did stretch her fingers. “Good, Wanda.” She said, much kinder, reaching for cuffs on her belt. “Can- can you just let me have my hands free? If you take my collar off, I can help you.” She said, voice rushed and hopeful, but she wasn’t lying on the fact that her abilities could ease their load greatly and possibly save lives. The girl seemed to think for a moment, but despite their near friendship she shook her head. “No, I’m sorry. As much as I can see your logic, my commanding officer almost didn’t let me take you, so I want you to keep it on and wear the cuffs, for your own safety’s sake, at least for now. Later, I’ll see what I can do.” Wanda nodded in understanding, but when the woman gave her a small smile she returned it nervously. She felt a bit safer with the guards now. 

The woman lead them down a hall she had only previously been in when she was taken here, that memory was one she didn’t want to think of now, but if she ever saw Tony Stark again she would use strong words to express how the government handled an 18 year old girl. She only briefly looked behind her, Clint, Sam, and Scott following, all cuffed as well. She ended up needing to be pulled up the ladder by a guard, but she did mumble under her breath about the handcuffs. It was only more scary when she got up top, seeing a few small boats bobbing in the water, the sky dark with clouds, the only light being provided was by a few wandering alarm lights and lightning that was followed by deafening thunder claps. The government was clearly unprepared for their perfect underwater cage to break, because there seemed to be only scattered protocol in the evacuation. 

When she shook herself out of her haze the guard she was following was already climbing onto one of the boats, Wanda falling to the concrete when the Raft lurched and groaned, falling sharply to one side before evening out again. She was composed before that, but she was now crying, being hefted over a guard’s shoulder and unceremoniously tossed onto one of the boats, her guard from before helping her up onto a seat, the woman quietly telling her it would be alright, Sam and Clint sitting on either of her sides, Wanda holding her cuffed hands to her chest, breathing heavily, flinching when saltwater splashed on her face. She looked up to thank her guard when she was also met with the cold eyes of the commanding officer that wanted to leave them behind. She held the glare, but her head whipped to the side when she heard the screaming of metal and people, eyes locked on the Raft sinking, locked onto the people that were still trying to climb out of it, seeing their reaching hands sink into the dark water, screams all being muffled at once. 

“No!” She shrieked, jumping forward only to be held back by Sam, wrestling out of his grasp and stumbling towards the commanding officer, hands together in a plea. “Please,” She cried, lip quivering like a child, hands pointing to her collar. “Take this transmitter off, take my cuffs off, I can save them!” She was given no response, he didn’t look to the horrifying scene, and now, he didn’t even so much as glance at her. She put her hands on his chest, slamming them against it. “Listen to me! I can save them!” He pushed her back roughly, Clint barely catching her before her head slammed against she floor of the ship. “Don’t touch me, freak.” He hissed, “Wanda… sit down, think about this.” Clint said to her lowly as she stood, eyes warily eyeing her hands, which began to glow despite the rapid warning beeps of her collar. “Since you’re so impartial to your friends dying, I’m sure you wouldn’t mind joining.” She said venomously, hands waving together before throwing him off the boat with red energy, her dark eyes watching him fall out of their vision. She was only able to begin saying she was sorry to Clint before seizing from the electricity of the collar and falling unconscious.


	2. Chapter 2

Wanda woke up with a gasp, breathing in salt water that stung her throat. She jerked around for a moment, trying to keep her mouth closed against the waves and following them as a way to find out which way was up. She struggled to swim, though luckily her hands were cuffed at the front so she was able to move her arms enough to let her surface, taking in a shaking breath before retching, shutting her mouth with her eyes squinted shut, swallowing her vomit. As vile as it was, she was already aware that there were hundreds of predators that, with a single scent, could pick her from the edge of the water and take her down where she would stay. When she opened her eyes again she looked around, it seemed to be dawn, but it was still dark because of the clouds, and she was basically blind, lightning flashing and showing her a piece of debris that she could hang onto. She struggled forward, each wave threatening to push her back under, and it didn’t make it better that she startled at the thunder clap that ensued. 

She finally got to the debris, with slight help from a wave, and put her arms around a broken metal pole, anchoring her to the floating remnants of her prison. She just sat there for awhile, leaning on it, panting heavily, her muscles aching from being electrocuted earlier. She could only guess that the ship they were on got overtaken by waves, despite that fact she didn’t see anything nearby that indicated human presence other than pieces of metal and other remnants of the Raft. “Clint?” She screamed, throat burning, straining her ears, praying to hear him call back. Praying for anything other than the crashing of waves and clapping of thunder. Clint was good, and her first thought was that she hoped he wouldn’t blame himself for Wanda getting separated, Clint seemed to take the role of a guardian for her, which was nice, comforting. The whole Avengers situation changed her whole life. Before she was a prisoner, a tool, used by bad people who were using her and her brother for their abilities. Now that she thought about it though, about Steve, and Tony, maybe… maybe it wasn’t as different as she thought. 

Sure, she had more artificial freedoms, but in the end she guessed they had the same goal, use her as a tool. Maybe not all of them, not Vision. The name made her heart wrench in her sore chest, out of all the things she had done over the past few years, a lot of which were bad, not to mention mind controlling the Avengers, out of all the things she had done, it had hurt the most when she hurt Vision. She could manipulate others easily, they all had ulterior motives, things she could work with, use to justify her own actions, not actions she’d do now, but ones that before she could justify. But no matter her reasoning, no thoughts could justify hurting him. Fate knew he was all good intentions, he was able to hold the god’s hammer, which was apparently an impossible feat, only for ones worthy. So she couldn’t look him in the eye in the airport and let him forgive her. She knew, logistically, about hurting Vision, that it made sense, she needed to be there for Cap, and he wasn’t letting her go, but ironically, Vision, an android, treated her more human than any other human could. His pained pleads and reasoning in her head only made her feel worse, so she tried to shake it from her mind. She wondered if he knew about the raft, sure, keeping her there was Tony’s orders, but she couldn’t imagine he would approve of straight jackets and sedation and electric collars.She called for Clint again, ignoring the tremors of her body from the cold, looking out into the darkness as if he would show up in front of her and say some soft of witty comment before helping her, maybe even giving her a hug. Which she admitted she could use right now. 

After a few minutes she gave up, sighing. She needed to get these handcuffs off, or she was proverbial toast, she was hardly able to make it here, and it was 10 feet away maximum, and she couldn’t hold onto this forever either. Her first idea was to use her powers, but every time she even began to think of it the collar beeped, reminding her of the punishment, and she couldn’t risk unconsciousness, even if it meant that she got the cuffs off, loose hands can’t help escape drowning from being asleep, she was lucky she woke up in the first place. Plus there was a good chance she could die, she didn’t know how the voltage on the thing worked, but any sort of electric charge in water couldn’t be good. She pressed her face onto the cold metal, straining to think of something- anything- when a wave sent her back, only her cuffs braced on the metal pole stopping her from drifting from the debris. 

Oh… okay, maybe that could work. Wanda braced her feet against the debris, so that her positioning was akin to Spiderman’s. Speaking of the kid, Wanda thought, another angry thought being sent to genius Tony Stark, that kid should not have been brought into the fight. She was 18, she considered that young, but that kid looked even _younger._ Fourteen, fifteen tops. Just went to show how clouded Tony’s judgement was ‘for the greater good.’ Who knew the greater good was keeping Wanda nearly sedated in a prison for a month, in a straight jacket with an electric collar. She channeled that rage into trying to get the handcuffs off, putting all of her physical strength into her legs, pushing away from the debris as the handcuffs strained against the metal, Wanda letting out a hissing breath through clenched teeth, feeling the pressure build on her wrists, slackening the cuffs for a moment to think. But when thunder rumbled in her ears she realized that most likely breaking her wrists was the only option to get these off. 

So she closed her eyes, thinking of Tony’s condescending voice, of the missile. Of her brother, the two of them huddled in fear. The two of them in cages, feeling Pietro’s life slip away as if it was her own. Pain of the emotional and physical sort gripped her chest, but hearing Pietro’s voice in her head made her overcome it, straining until the handcuffs snapped in half with a broken cry, hands shaking as she grasped back onto the metal, hefting her torso up on it to rest, keeping her wrists, which were now very quickly turning shades of yellow and purple out of the water, the deep throbbing pain confirming that both wrists were broken. She stayed there silently for awhile, bobbing up and down with the waves, until her physical pain caught up with her, and she began to cry. She felt alone before, after Pietro died, but now, where all she could see was clouds and water, she felt more than alone, she felt stranded. She wondered if she should have just let the waves take her. It likely would have been less painful than this. But she knew if it was Pietro she'd want him try and make it. So she'd try. For her brother.

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know what you think of this story! Kudos and comments are very greatly appreciated<3


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